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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Waiting on Wednesday (96)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. So here's this week's WOW pick:


You all know how much we love Ilona Andrews and her Kate Daniels series here on Goldilox and the Three Weres so of course it's one our most anticipated books of September. I'm so excited and scared for this book at the same time. I'm excited because Yay! new Kate book! I'm scared because the last few books have put me through an emotional wringer. The last book made me bawl. That being said, I'll be reading this as soon as I get my hands on it.



Magic Binds
(Kate Daniels #9)
Ilona Andrews
Release: September 20, 2016
Goodreads Amazon
Mercenary Kate Daniels knows all too well that magic in post-Shift Atlanta is a dangerous business. But nothing she’s faced could have prepared her for this…

Kate and the former Beast Lord Curran Lennart are finally making their relationship official. But there are some steep obstacles standing in the way of their walk to the altar…

Kate’s father, Roland, has kidnapped the demigod Saiman and is slowly bleeding him dry in his never-ending bid for power. A Witch Oracle has predicted that if Kate marries the man she loves, Atlanta will burn and she will lose him forever. And the only person Kate can ask for help is long dead.

The odds are impossible. The future is grim. But Kate Daniels has never been one to play by the rules…
What book are you waiting on?

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Release Day Review: Made For Sin by Stacia Kane


26848737Made For Sin
Stacia Kane
Release: August 30, 2016
Goodreads Amazon
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley
Karen Marie Moning raves that Stacia Kane “delivers dark, sexy urban fantasy at its finest.” Now Kane introduces her most addictive antihero yet: a Las Vegas PI who makes his own luck—and embodies everything that’s oh-so-right with Sin City.

A lot of bad hands get dealt in Vegas, but E. L. Speare may be holding one of the worst: He’s cursed with the need to commit sins, and if he misses his daily quota, there’s hell to pay—literally. Fortunately, his hometown affords him plenty of chances to behave badly.

But Speare’s newest case really has him going out on a limb. The right-hand man of a notorious crime boss has been found dead in a Dumpster—minus his right hand, not to mention the rest of his arm. What catches Speare’s attention, however, is that the missing appendage was severed clean by a demon-sword, a frighteningly powerful tool of the underworld.

Speare’s out of his element, so he turns to a specialist: Ardeth Coyle, master thief, dealer in occult artifacts, and bona fide temptress. Ardeth’s hotter than a Las Vegas sidewalk on the Fourth of July, but she’s one sin Speare has to resist.

The dismembered corpses are piling up, unimaginable evil lurks in the shadows, and if this odd couple hopes to beat the odds, Speare needs to keep his hands off Ardeth, and his head in the game. 
Review:
You might have noticed we're big fans of Stacia Kane's Downside series around here. Made For Sin is not a Downside novel, and is really nothing like one. It actually has a lot more in common with Kane's earlier Megan Chase series.

Las Vegas P.I. E.L. Speare has a demon inside him. He's not possessed precisely, since he's in control most of the time. But he has to continually feed it sins to keep that control. He's a tortured bad boy, but not by choice. His approach to his partnership with Ardeth is that "I want her, but I'm not good enough" that you see a lot in romances. Telling the story entirely from his point of view kept it from really feeling like a romance, but for the first few chapters I was waiting for the POV change.

I'm a big fan of paranormal detective stories and I love the Las Vegas setting. I just feel like this is all something I've seen before. Admittedly not all in the same place, but I still feel like there's nothing new here. There are no twists in the murder mystery plot, though the ending was interesting and dark and sounds like the beginning of a series. I'd certainly give Speare another chance to wow me if it becomes one.

Made For Sin is fine. I liked it. It was quick read that entertained me on a rainy Saturday afternoon. I just didn't love it like I wanted to.

    
 stars




Monday, August 29, 2016

Rose Red Goes To WorldCon


Last weekend Rose Red attended the world science fiction convention, WorldCon (aka MidAmeriCon II), and she has some thoughts.


This year it was in Kansas City, MO which was within driving distance of where I live so I decided to go at the last minute thanks to some urging from some friends (Hi Mark and Shannon!). I had a ton of fun meeting up with online friends in real life and meeting some of my favorite authors. Sadly, I was awful about remembering to take pictures but I did take a few. Overall, I enjoyed going to WorldCon but I don't think I'll ever go again. Let me explain my thoughts. This may end up being a long and kind of rambly post.

Let me preface this post with the fact that this was my first SFF convention of this type. I keep an equal footing in the Romance, YA, and SFF book communities so I have attended several book conventions before but they've been RT for Romance and loads of YA book cons/festivals as well as a couple of literary festivals that span all genres (You all should go to the National Book Festival in DC if you ever get the chance!). I've also been to several comic cons for their literature tracks and I attend my beloved C2E2 every year. But the fact remains that I had never been to a convention that concentrated only on SFF literature and media. It was different in so many good ways, some weird ways, and some not so great ways.


Let's start with the good, shall we? One thing I loved about WorldCon is that it is a con that lots of folks in the sci-fi/fantasy industry go to. I got to have several conversations with some of my favorite authors, online friends I've made in the SFF community over the years, and a couple fellow bloggers including Gretl. For me, WorldCon was about meeting up with people and not so much the programming.

Let's talk about the programming. I was only at the con for Friday and Saturday due to work and other things so I really only went to panels on Friday because Saturday was filled with all the signings I wanted to go to. I found the panels I attended to either be hit or miss. Unfortunately, the were mostly misses. I went to panels that revolved around Steampunk and Urban Fantasy because that's where my interests lie. My favorite panels were the Is Steampunk Alternate History? with Beth Cato, Shanna Swendson, and Brooke Johnson and the Ace/Roc presentation where Anne Sowards highlighted what Ace/Roc will be publishing in the next 6-8 months.


I loved the Steampunk Alt History panel! The authors discussed why they love writing steampunk and how much research goes into writing alternate history. They also discussed why gears are so popular to represent Steampunk and why it's important for the gears/aesthetic to do/mean something. My favorite thing about this panel was hearing how each author did research and how sometimes the story calls for altering a historical time line to fit the narrative ie like moving a major war up 30 years. I came out of this panel wanting to read and buy all the Steampunk books I could get my hands on. I'd highly recommend checking out these authors and reading their books. I can personally vouch that Beth Cato and Brooke Johnson's book are amazing! I haven't read Shanna Swendson's yet but I bought her Rebel Mechanics book because I'm completely sold on the premise. Plus, it was one of Gretl's favorite books of 2015.

On the flip side, I went to another Steampunk panel and it wasn't nearly as good. There were some good thoughts shared by some of the panelists and I adore listening to Gail Carriger whenever I get the chance but there was something off about it. I'm not sure I can put a finger on why it felt off to me. Part of it was one of the authors plugging their next book as something to check out because "they added the diversity". I think another part of why it was off was that a majority of the audience had never really read Steampunk. In fact one of the questions from the audience revolved around the fact that the person had never read the genre and wanted the panelists to explain why he should care. As I said, it just felt off to me especially after going to such a great panel earlier in the day.

The other panels I went to were panels about Urban Fantasy. The first one was about enjoying the genre and I enjoyed it for the most part. This one wasn't so much the panel as it was one of the panelists. I enjoy listening to the thoughts of everyone on a panel but I'm not a fan when there is a panelist who overrides everyone else and talks more than everyone else. As I said, I enjoyed it for the most part but it would have been excellent if not for the one panelist.

The other UF panel I went to was all about UF Myths and Legends and it was a great panel. It wasn't what I thought it would be at first but it turned out to be fantastic! The panel focused on how myths  and mythology influence UF as the genre we know now and how different authors put their own spin on that mythology that makes them stand out from the rest. They even touched on cultural appropriation and how important it is to research the mythology and to talk to people who belong to those cultures so you don't offend a majority of those people and can be accurate as possible. I came away with a bunch of myths and legends I want to check out as well as a list of books to read because the panelists were awesome and I want to read their books!

The best part was after the panel when I finally got to meet Chelsea Mueller who runs the Vampire Book Club blog. I've been reading VBC for years now and have been talking to Chelsea on Twitter for almost as long so it was awesome to meet her in real life finally! She was on the panel because her first book comes out this next spring. It sounds so awesome! You all should go check it out on Goodreads! Also, she's running a contest and giving away books if you add it to your to-read shelf. I got to sit and catch up with her outside the con suite later on Friday and it was so much fun!

I won't say much about the Ace/Roc presentation I went to other than "OMG! They have SO many cool books coming out in the next eight months!". Also, Anne Sowards is an absolute delight!


Saturday was all about going to signings and other author events. The first thing I went to was actually not an event at the con. The Kansas City Central library held an author event with Beth Cato and Becky Chamber that was just awesome! Also, the library is absolutely gorgeous! The picture of the bookshelf building earlier in this post is the parking garage next to the library. How amazing is that?

The library event was utterly awesome! I adore both Beth Cato's work as well as Becky Chambers. If you haven't read their books, you should change that. You all know that we love Beth Cato's Clockwork Dagger series here on the Goldilox blog. I just recently finished Chambers's The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and it was freaking fantastic! It's kind of like Firefly hooked up with an Ursula LeGuin novel and Star Trek to have a book baby and then made Farscape the godfather. It's not fast-paced or action-packed but that didn't take away from my enjoyment of it. It's all about the crew's journey building this wormhole and how you can make your own family. It was amazing!

It was cool listening to them talk and hearing how similar their work is even though they write different genres. After they talked about their books, they had a small signing afterwards which was awesome! The library was selling Beth's new book four days early and you can bet I was all over that! I'm so excited to read it! I may have fangirled overly much but I regret nothing. On top of meeting two amazing authors, I finally got to meet Gretl in real life at the event! That made my day! Unfortunately, I'm a spaz and didn't get a picture with her.


After the library event, my Con schedule was full of author signings. I met Gail Carriger, Scott Lynch, Megan O'Keefe, Carrie Patel, Mary Robinette Kowal, Alyc Helms, and Peter Tieryas. I also caught Max Gladstone after the Enjoying UF panel on Friday to sign my copy of Four Roads Cross since he had no scheduled signings at the con.


I didn't make it to her official signing but I caught Brooke Johnson while we both in line for Gail Carriger and she signed my copy of The Brass Giant. I didn't know she was going to be there but I ran into Charlaine Harris in the hall and totally fangirled at her about her Midnight, TX books.


After all those signings and dinner was the Hugo awards, I opted not to go to the actual awards ceremony. Chelsea and I streamed it on my iPad at the bar. I definitely preferred that over going to the ceremony because we got to talk to people as we were watching it.


Now that I've talked about the good parts, let's talk about the weird things I noticed about the convention. Coming from the romance community, I'm used to conventions that meld both the YA and Adult communities together flawlessly. WorldCon did not do this well at all. In fact, to me, the con felt antiquated. The average con goer age was around 45 years old. I'm almost 30 and I was the youngest person by far in several of the panels I went to. Not that the con having lots of older folks is a bad thing, it was just weird.

The thing that disturbed me the most is that books in the YA fantasy and sci-fi genres were essentially ignored. You can't have a representative convention if you're ignoring half of the genre just because they're YA. There were hardly any popular YA authors at the convention at all. In fact, the only YA authors I can think of that were there were Shanna Swendson, Gail Carriger (who is most known for her adult books), and Rae Carson. It also seems short-sighted to me because young adults are the future of both genres. The YA books they're reading now are going to be what influences their books and writing when they become authors later. The few teens I ran into there felt excluded when I talked to them in the signing lines and that isn't the best way to gain a future membership that will add their voices to the community and add their opinions to the Hugos. I think the Con is finally taking steps in the right direction though because the Hugos are finally getting a YA award after years of debate. Hopefully, this can fix things so that SFF can have a more diverse community of both teens and adults like the romance community in a few years.


The other thing I noticed and it is probably because I've been spoiled by all of the comic cons I've been to, but the dealer's room at WorldCon was very sub par. The booths were boring and there wasn't very many vendors period. The only major publisher with a booth was Angry Robot which is crazy for such a big con for the SFF community. All the conventions and festivals I've been to previously, I was able to buy books for authors doing signings there. To me, it was so weird to be at a major book convention but not be able to buy books of the authors featured on the schedule. Not that that stopped me from buying several books, but I definitely would have bought more if they'd been available. I had budgeted a lot more money to buy books than I ended up spending because the books just weren't there.

Overall, I had a fun time meeting friends and authors at the convention but I'm not sure I'll ever go again. We'll see what happens in a few years. Maybe things will have changed enough by then that I will fill like going.


Thursday, August 25, 2016

Unraveled by Jennifer Estep Blog Tour: Early Review and Giveaway

unraveled blog tour banner

I'm really excited to be part of the blog tour for the next Elemental Assassin novel, Unraveled, which is out on Tuesday. Check out the tour-wide giveaway at the end of my review and don't forget to stop by the other blogs on the tour.

unraveledUnraveled
(Elemental Assassin #)
Jennifer Estep
Release: August 30,2016
Goodreads Amazon
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley
What could go wrong when you’re trying to unravel a decades-old conspiracy?

As the current queen of the Ashland underworld, you would think that I, Gin Blanco, would know all about some secret society controlling things from behind the scenes. I might be the Spider, the city’s most fearsome assassin, but all my Ice and Stone elemental magic hasn’t done me a lick of good in learning more about “the Circle”. Despite my continued investigations, the trail’s gone as cold as the coming winter.

So when Finnegan Lane, my foster brother, gets word of a surprising inheritance, we figure why not skip town for someplace less dangerous for a few days? That place: Bullet Pointe, a fancy hotel resort complex plus Old West theme park that Finn now owns lock, stock, and barrel. At first, all the struttin’ cowboys and sassy saloon girls are just hokey fun. But add in some shady coincidences and Circle assassins lurking all around, and vacationing becomes wilder—and deadlier—than any of us expected.

Good thing this assassin brought plenty of knives to the gunfight…
Review:
After all the feels and family drama of Bitter Bite and Unwanted, it's nice to remember that sometimes the Elemental Assassin series is just FUN. If  Deadly Sting was Die Hard in a museum, Unraveled is a Tarantino-directed Home Alone sequel. Gin is both bloodthirsty and highly entertaining as she once again battles baddies to save her friends.

I was a little bit skeptical about Estep setting the whole book at the western-themed amusement park Bullet Pointe. I've read books that go way overboard with the cheese factor in similar situations. But she did a great job creating a realistic environment that was just cheesy enough. I felt like I was watching a performance at Disneyland during their high noon show. (And I should have known that Estep would come through since I love how she uses the medieval theme in her Black Blade series.)

I was also surprised by how much Dierdre's story continued in Unraveled, since it seemed like we were done with her after Bitter Bite, but Finn inherited the theme park from his mother and she kept coming up again. Gin's mother appears in the story as well, which is something new. I think we'll be seeing more of Gin and Bria's memories of her as they continue to track down mysterious Circle members.

I hope we also continue to see the supporting cast members get off the bench more often, as Phillip and Silvio did in this book. And I would love to see more of Ira, the former manager of Bullet Pointe who Dierdre had demoted.

There were a few plot twists that I saw coming a mile away, but I still really enjoyed Unraveled. It's Gin at her action-hero best, including some spy-style sneaking around in disguise. Fans of the series should get a kick out of this one!

    
 stars

Our reviews of other books in this series:


About Jennifer Estep

jennifer step author picJennifer Estep is a New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author prowling the streets of her imagination in search of her next fantasy idea.

Jennifer writes the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series for Pocket Books. Unwanted, e-novella #14.5 in the series, is available now. Unraveled, book #15, will be released on Aug. 30.

Jennifer also writes the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series. She is also the author of the Black Blade young adult urban fantasy series and the Bigtime paranormal romance series.

For more information on Jennifer and her books, visit
www.jenniferestep.com or follow Jennifer on Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter.


Jennifer is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card, and the publisher has offered up 5 print copies of UNRAVELED AND one FULL SET of the Elemental Assassin series! Open to US and Canada residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Check out the other stops on the Unraveled Blog Tour:
8/15: Tome Tender (review + giveaway)
8/16: DianaMCKiaradB (review + excerpt)
8/17: BJ’s Reviews (excerpt)
8/18: Rantings of a Reading Addict (review + excerpt)
8/19: The Book Nympho (review + giveaway)
8/20: The Reading Addict (excerpt + giveaway)
8/21: A Book Fanatic Obsession (review + excerpt), Story Forge (Q&A + excerpt)
8/22: Books and Things (review + giveaway), Angel’s Guilty Pleasures (excerpt + giveaway)
8/23: Cover2Cover (excerpt + giveaway)
8/25: Goldilox and the Three Weres (review + giveaway)
8/26: LilyElement Book Reviews (review), Urban Fantasy Investigations (excerpt + giveaway)
8/27: Book Junkiez (review + excerpt), Will Read for Feels (excerpt + giveaway)
8/28: The Book Crumb Trail (review + giveaway)
8/29: Diane’s Book Blog (excerpt + giveaway), Bad Bird Reads (review + giveaway)
8/30: Slippery Words (review + excerpt + Q&A), Gizmo’s Reviews (review + excerpt)
8/31: Bambi Unbridled (review + giveaway)
9/1: Bookish Things & More (review + excerpt)
9/2: Books That Hook (review + excerpt)

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Really Short Reviews: Psy-Changeling Novella Edition Part Two!

Guys! The release of Wild Embrace, the latest novella bind-up for the Psy-Changeling series, is here! And I couldn't be more excited to review it for you! In celebration of this new collection, I reviewed the novella, Whisper of Sin, and the other Psy-Changeling collection, Wild Invitation, here. Today, I'm also going to be reviewing the remaining standalone novella, Secrets at Midnight, as well as Wild Embrace. I'll be reviewing them the same way as last week's post where I'll make a comment on where each story falls in the series and give you my overall opinion of the novella.


Secrets at Midnight
(Psy-Changeling #12.5)
Nalini Singh
Release: August 2, 2016
A changeling will do anything to find and keep his mate in this smoldering story from New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh. 

Bastien Smith is frustrated. A changeling male should be able to track his mate anywhere—through fire and hail, snow and rain. But he keeps finding and losing her scent in the city streets, ever since he first became aware of it two weeks earlier, when the elusive fragrance awakened the leopard within him...

Then Bastien is suddenly confronted with his prey. Kirby is an all-too-human woman who wants Bastien just as much as he wants her. But he can’t deny what his body and senses are telling him: there is a raging chaos inside of Kirby that he doesn’t understand, secrets that whisper awake at midnight and cause her terrible pain. If they’re to have any chance of forever, then he must solve the mystery that is Kirby...

Secrets at Midnight originally appeared in Night Shift.
Review by Rose Red:

Place in Series: Secrets at Midnight takes place after the events in the twelveth book, Heart of Obsidian, and features Mercy's brother, Bastien.

Opinion: I adored this novella! The mystery surrounding Bastien's disappearing mate held me riveted until he meets Kirby at a packmate's house. I loved how their romance and relationship developed and how Bastien took his time with Kirby who kept getting hit by surprises. I easily fell head over heels for Kirby. She was small and fierce despite not knowing her past. I can't wait to see more of them in later books.

Rating:
    1/2
  4.5 / 5 Stars!




Wild Embrace
(Psy-Changeling #15.5)
Nalini Singh
Release: August 23, 2016
The “alpha author of paranormal romance”* presents a stunningly sensual collection of four all-new Psy-Changeling novellas, in which taboos are broken, boundaries are crossed, and instincts prove irresistible...

Echo of Silence
In a deep-sea station, Tazia Nerif has found her life’s work as an engineer, keeping things running smoothly. But she wants nothing more than to break down the barrier of silence between her and her telekinetic Psy station commander...

Dorian
A changeling who can never shift lives a life of quiet frustration—until he learns how to let his leopard come out and play...

Partners in Persuasion
Still raw from being burned by a dominant female, wolf changeling Felix will never again risk being a plaything. But for dominant leopard Dezi, he’s the most fascinating man she’s ever met. She just has to convince this gun-shy wolf that he can trust the dangerous cat who wants to take a slow, sexy bite out of him…

Flirtation of Fate
Seven years ago, Kenji broke Garnet’s heart. Now the wolf packmates have to investigate the shocking murder of one of their own. And the more Kenji sees of the woman Garnet has become, the deeper he begins to fall once more. But even his primal instincts are no match for the dark secret he carries...

*Booklist, starred review

Review by Rose Red:
 
Novella: Echo of Silence
  
Place in Series: Echo of Silence is set after the events in the second book, Visions of Heat, and features the Stefan who is always referenced as the Arrow stationed on the deep-sea station, Alaris. We never really meet him in the series so you could read it after book two but I'd recommend reading it after Heart of Obsidian.

Opinion: I have been wanting to know about the mysterious Arrow who has been mentioned randomly throughout the series once the Arrows were a larger part of the narrative. All we knew was that Stefan had been stationed at the deep-sea station Alaris and not why. Although it had been hinted that he hadn't been suitable to continue Arrow training even though they consider him one. We got to find out why in this novella as well as meet Tazia, one of the engineers on Alaris. I loved watching Stefan and Tazia finally come to see each other as individuals outside of their positions. Their romance was sweet and different from others in the series. Tazi had a different upbringing and it came to play in their unconventional courtship. I loved the hell out of their story and I hope we see more of them in upcoming books!

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

Novella: Dorian
  
Place in Series: Dorian is kind of tricky to nail down in the series because it's a collection of memories set before Slave to Sensation and after Hostage to Pleasure. I'd definitely recommend reading it after Hostage to Pleasure or Branded by Fire.

Opinion: While I loved this short, it was my least favorite in the collection. It's a vignette-style collection of memories that revolve around Dorian's latency and him getting to shift for the first time. It was adorable and I loved getting the peak at teen Dorian, Mercy, Vaughn, and Lucas. It was an enjoyable and happy addition to the anthology even though it was super short.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Novella: Partners in Persuasion
  
Place in Series: Partners in Persuasion takes place somewhere between the end of Kiss of Snow and the start of Allegiance of Honor. I'd be tempted to place directly in between Shards of Hope and Allegiance but I'm not sure.

Opinion: This novella was freaking adorable! We've seen a mating between a dominant male and a submissive female and plenty of relationships between dominant males and less dominant females, but this novella focuses on a relationship between a dominant female and a submissive male. Not only that but it was also between a leopard and a wolf. IT WAS SO GOOD! This novella was all about the romance and watching Felix and Dezi's relationship develop was one of my favorite things. Of course, they hit a few snags and had some setbacks but they persevered and they are absolutely adorable together! I love them! I hope we see more of them in later books.

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Novella: Flirtation of Fate
  
Place in Series: I want to say that Flirtation of Fate takes place after Allegiance of Honor but in reality it could have taken place anytime after Tangle of Need.

Opinion: We've been watching Kenji and Garnet dance around each other since they were first introduced into the series and I've always wanted to know what happened between them after they show back up after a walk during Hawke and Sienna's mating ceremony in Tangle of Need. I didn't expect the murder mystery portion of this novella but I enjoyed the hell out of it. It was fun seeing Kenji and Garnet work together but it was also confusing when you can immediately tell that they care for each other and are trying not to. I loved them together and I guessed early on what was keeping Kenji from chasing after Garnet but it didn't lessen how much I enjoyed reading this novella. It was such an excellently written novella! I'm so happy that we finally have Kenji and Garnet's story as canon and I can't wait to see more of them in later books!

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Overall, I loved this novella collection just as much as I've loved everything else in this series. All the stories in here made me even more excited to see what Nalini Singh comes up with in this next arc of the series.
 
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

Overall Anthology Rating:
    
  4.5 / 5 Stars


 
My reviews of other books in this series:
Allegiance of Honor by Nalini Singh

Monday, August 22, 2016

Review + Giveaway: A World Without You by Beth Revis

A World Without You
Beth Revis
Release: July 19, 2016
Goodreads Amazon
Book Depository
Seventeen-year-old Bo has always had delusions that he can travel through time. When he was ten, Bo claimed to have witnessed the Titanic hit an iceberg, and at fifteen, he found himself on a Civil War battlefield, horrified by the bodies surrounding him. So when his worried parents send him to a school for troubled youth, Bo assumes he knows the truth: that he’s actually attending Berkshire Academy, a school for kids who, like Bo, have “superpowers.”

At Berkshire, Bo falls in love with Sofía, a quiet girl with a tragic past and the superpower of invisibility. Soíia helps Bo open up in a way he never has before. In turn, Bo provides comfort to Sofía, who lost her mother and two sisters at a very young age.

But even the strength of their love isn’t enough to help Sofia escape her deep depression. After she commits suicide, Bo is convinced that she’s not actually dead. He believes that she’s stuck somewhere in time—that he somehow left her in the past, and that now it’s his job to save her. And as Bo becomes more and more determined to save Sofía, he must decide whether to face his demons head-on or succumb to a psychosis that will let him be with the girl he loves.

Review: 

There are some books that you start with the intention of reading a chapter or two and then going on to whatever else you have to do for that day. And then there are books like A World Without You by Beth Revis, which you open up and never put back down again until you're finished.

This book falls into a genre I don't read a lot of, young adult contemporary, but also manages to bridge between contemporary and fantasy through the main character's delusions of super abilities. I absolutely adored this book and can comfortably say its one of my favorite reads of 2016 so far. I was so excited about how much I loved it, that I decided to give away a copy from The Book Depository!

Check out my thoughts (spoiler-free) on A World Without You by Beth Revis and then enter to win your own copy on the Rafflecopter form below!

A World Without You by Beth Revis


Click on the little red youtube button below to subscribe to the new channel!

You can also view more videos on the channel by clicking here: 
  

     
  5 / 5 stars



In a combination of being excited to share my love for this book AND trying to grow the number of viewers at the new youtube book review channel, I thought I'd give away a copy of A World Without You by Beth Revis! 
You must be 13 or older and live somewhere The Book Depository ships to be eligible. 
(Also, this will be a regular copy of the book, not the annotated copy.)



a Rafflecopter giveaway



Friday, August 19, 2016

Weres Wanna Know: Do you have a bookish hobby?

Weres Wanna Know is a new discussion feature where we share a topic that's been on our minds and invite you to share your thoughts as well.



It's been a while since we've done a Weres Wanna Know post. It's also been kind of a rough week and I don't really want to have a serious discussion. So let's do something fun!

Do you have a bookish hobby or a geeky collection?

In high school I learned to make jewelry but I hadn't done it in years except for turning an occasional earring into a pendant. (Big earrings and curly hair don't get along.) Then about a year ago I started making book-inspired charm necklaces. You've seen some of them in giveaways on the blog.
Now I'm working on adding other elements and figuring out what else I can make. I did a keychain recently. Here's the Harry Potter necklace I'm working on now. I'm trying to decide if I should add more to it.


So what's your bookish hobby? Do you write fanfic? Paint your favorite characters? Collect zombie teapots? Create spreadsheets to keep up with who's still alive on Game of Thrones?

Share a photo or a link and tell us about it. Maybe we can inspire each other.